1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a section image obtaining apparatus and a method of obtaining a section image, and in particular, it relates to a section image obtaining apparatus that employs an electronic camera for a microscope mounted at a microscope and a method adopted by the section image obtaining apparatus.
2. Description of the Related Art
The objects of examination conducted using a microscope that is to be described in this specification are specimens including cultured cells, isolated cells and sections of tissue. These specimens are examined for study of the cell internal structure in the case of a single cell, the morphological state of a cell within tissue, the morphological state of tissue constituted of a plurality of cells and the like. Examination with the microscope is conducted using two-dimensional images. The plane of such images is perpendicular to the direction of the optical axis. Thus, information along the depthwise direction is not included in such images. Information along the depthwise direction may be obtained in the manner described below through incorporation of a television camera. Images are taken in intermittently as strata images by the television camera while moving the focal position, and these images are processed at a personal computer and converted to three-dimensional images. Then, using the converted data, a three-dimensional image is produced or an image that displays the structure of a given section is created.
However, this method, in which a plurality of strata images must be taken in and processed at a computer, requires a great deal of memory capacity and also poses a problem in that a long time is required for processing.